Marcus Foligno Team Canada Jersey Card

Marcus Foligno is becoming a reliable, hard-working checking winger who can at times chip in with timely goals. Casual fans might not have noticed him these past couple of years because ''timely'' was hard to associate with the Buffalo Sabres, but in 2013-14, out of his 7 goals, 6 were at even strength, 1 was shorthanded, and a whopping 3 (nearly half) were game-winners.

While he was a point-per-game player in the AHL with the Rochester Americans in 2012-13, he didn't really have a history of doing so even in Juniors, where he only achieved the feat in his fourth and final season (2010-11), the second year after his hometown Sabres made him the 104th pick at the 2009 draft.

He'll still barely be 24 when the next season gets underway, so he hasn't hit his peak nor exactly found his groove yet, but I foresee a reliable, 10-goal, 25-to-30-point man down the line.

His father, Mike Foligno, was a Sabres great when I was a kid, surpassing the 50-point mark 5 times with 5 seasons over 25 goals, including a peak of 41 in 1985-86; he ended up posting over 700 points in over 1000 NHL games while also suiting up for the Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs, and playing his final 39 games with the Florida Panthers.

As a local kid, Marcus gets a lot of attention in Buffalo, often appearing in team promos, and because he's good-looking, a (probably) mock Twitter page has him hitting on lady-fans and calling out/laughing at fellow players in the style of Roberto Luongo's page, but a tad ''jockier''.

Of course, my main reason for featuring this card today is because it features him playing for Team Canada at the 2001 World Juniors (held in Buffalo), wearing his father's #17 (he wears #82 with the Sabres):

It's card #TC-MF from Upper Deck's 2013-14 SP Game-Used Edition series, showing him in Canada's red (''visitors'') uniform, with a matching game-worn jersey swatch.

Joe Thronton Jersey Card

Yes, I shall continue the streak of jersey cards because one of the two bits of news I'd expected all summer that hadn't come yet finally has: the San Jose Sharks have stripped Joe Thornton of his captaincy. (For the record, the other one involves Cam Ward moving to a team in black and gold).

But back to the team in teal, and what some observers are calling ''a (very public) nervous breakdown'':

The strangest part in all of this? Stripping Thornton's ''C'' came nearly five years to the day of losing his alternate captaincy back in 2009, when the Sharks also took away Patrick Marleau's ''C''. That shakeup came after a massive playoff disappointment (sound familiar?) in which the Sharks won 53 regular season games before getting bounced in the opening round by Anaheim. That led (head coach) Todd McLellan to overhaul his entire leadership group (sound familiar?) and go into training camp with no captains or alternates (sound familiar?).

This, after GM Doug Wilson promised to clean house and rebuild, then opted not to (or at least just let some second-tier veterans go). Someone's stepping on someone else's toes; someone's going to lose their job over a decision they went along with but didn't make themselves.

Thornton is 35. Can he be The Guy, The Franchise, the difference maker? No, and he never was, and perhaps it shouldn't have been expected of him.

Is he an elite player? Yes, he's still one of the best passers in the league, and still gets close to a point per game late in his career.

He hasn't won in the NHL, but when used as a spare part by a team that could afford it (Team Canada), he has won gold at the Olympics (2010) and the World Cup (2004). Like Dave Andreychuk, he might end up winning the Cup in his last season as a third-liner on an actual contender rallying around him for that final victory lap.

Or maybe he's like Eric Lindros: really good, just not what people expected, and just that notch under what it takes to be the guy who carries a team (and/or be in the Hall). For the record #2: I think Joe Thornton is a much better more accomplished player than Lindros, because he jumped at the chance to be merely a role player (Canada 2010 versus Canada 2006, i.e. ''Mega-Fail'') for the greater good and his team.

Speaking of Canada, here he is wearing his country's white (''home'') uniform, and judging by the ads on the helmet and jersey, either from the Spengler Cup or the World Championships, from Upper Deck's 2013-14 SP Game-Used Edition, card #TC-JT of the Team Canada Fabrics sub-set, with a game-worn matching white swatch:

I prefer my international uniforms without the Zepler ads, but at least they help in placing the athlete in the right context...

Jonathan Huberdeau Team Canada Jersey Card

Jonathan Huberdeau was barely a week old when the Montréal Canadiens last won the Stanley Cup... the phenom from the North Shore was drafted 3rd overall at the 2011 draft by the Florida Panthers, behind Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Gabriel Landeskog, in what was perhaps the best top-3 of the past 15 years. Only Landeskog has played in the post-season so far, though, with his Colorado Avalanche losing its first-round series against the Minnesota Wild in seven games just a couple of weeks ago.

Huberdeau won the Calder trophy after the 2012-13 season, posting 31 points in 48 games in the lockout-shortened season, edging out the Canadiens' Brendan Gallagher and the Chicago Blackhawks' Brandon Saad. He had already won the Memorial Cup MVP title a year before, as his Saint John Sea Dogs captured the title.

Earlier today, at the World Championships, Huberdeau tried a Peter Forsberg deke against Team Sweden, but was stopped by goaltender Anders Nilsson. Still, with Team Canada surfing on a 5-win streak, I figured it was the perfect time to feature this card, from Upper Deck's 2013-14 SP Game-Used Edition card (#TC-JH of the Team Canada Fabrics sub-set):

Already the best forward the Panthers have, Huberdeau needs to add maybe 15 or 20 pounds to his 6'1'', 177-pound frame to become harder to throw off the puck. He already has a well-rounded game and can set plays up as well as he shoots, and his minus-5 on the lowly Panthers this year also stands as a testament to the strength of his defensive game, though no one will ever mistake him for a checking winger.